Girl's Night

Day In.

My sister and I try to do something together on Wednesday nights, since the guys do trivia. We opted to dine in with food from our favorite Mexican place (Verde) and do some cooking.

Rebecca made some delicious and healthy granola with peanut butter. Yum!

And because we never follow a recipe, she added dried cranberries and pecans.

I made more of that strawberry jam that I love. Plus, we were out of jam from the store so I thought it would be a nice treat on Stuart's PB+J sandwiches.

Wine is a must-have at Girls Night.

Note: I keep my strawberries in bigger pieces, so it's more of a preserves, I would say.

Also, since we both have puppies, they enjoyed some time together....which included:

-Lady being the instigator of all trouble.

-Lady "falling" into our pond.

-Lady getting dirty...and smelling really bad.

-Cotton being the perfect dog (hehe).

...and ended with both dogs getting a much needed bath.

There's a stinky shoe of Stuart's for everyone!

Til next Wednesday!

Day Out.

AC

Bench Makeover

Day In.

When Stuart bought the house, it came with an old black bench out front. Nothing was necessarily wrong with it...but of course, I was itching to change it. I needed some color!

Here's before. A little blah.

I used a bright blue outdoor spray paint (with a glossy finish). I love how it turned out!

Now I just need some outdoor pillows and next thing you know, I will be out on the front porch drinking my hot tea each morning.

Also, the box next to it is an old grenade box that our neighbor gave to us (sans grenades). Neat!

Day Out.

AC

Detox Smoothie

Day In.

One Sunday, I decided to try a "detox smoothie" for lunch. We've never tried one, and we usually aren't smoothie peops. I have to say, it wasn't that bad! :) Stuart has since made others.

Bottoms up!

Detox Smoothie

1 1/2 cups of fresh spinach

1 apple, chopped with peel on

1 clementine, peeled

juice of a lemon or lime

1 frozen banana

2 T. Greek yogurt

1/2 cup pineapple

Ice

Blend together. 

Day Out.

AC

New Year's Resolution: Try new recipes

Day In.

I never really follow through on my New Year's resolutions...maybe ever. So I thought I would make one that would be pretty easy to stick to. Since we love food, and I (Anna) love to cook, I would try new recipes this year.

I don't have any pictures, but I thought I would share some of the recipes I have tried so far!

Sweet Potato Pancakes
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/40-a-day/sweet-potato-pancakes-recipe/index.html

Verdict: I realized that I am not a fan of pancakes all that much...especially making them. Especially when you have guests, and pancakes forbid you to leave their side. These were ok...a little dense for my liking. But a nice way to use a sweet potato!

Homemade Pizza Dough
This always seemed scary for me...using yeast and making dough. But it was super easy! And now I shall never go back to that stuff in the twist can.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2011/09/fig-prosciutto-pizza-with-arugula/

Stu and I love figs so this combo of fig spread with prosciutto was amazing. (p.s. Fresh Market had the BEST fig spread. You could spread it on a shoe, and it would be tasty....)

Tomato-Glazed Meatloaves from Smitten Kitchen
I love her blog so I bought her new cookbook...it's pretty awesome. I don't think the recipe is on her website. Stu LOVED this. I did not...maybe it would taste better to me if I didn't have to make it. The flavors were good.

Fried Chicken with White Gravy from Tupelo Honey Cafe
After we spent our anniversary in Asheville, my mom gave me a cookbook from the Tupelo Honey Cafe. So I decided to whip up my first ever fried chicken...delicious! It has crushed nuts as the batter...really good with the gravy. And most importantly, I got to use my new thermometer to fry the chicken.

Chicken Salad with Cilantro and Avocado
http://relishscd.blogspot.ca/2012/11/avacado-chicken-salad-scd-paleo.html

This was yummy...and super healthy. Anything with avocado or cilantro is fine with me.

Slow-Cooker Herbed Balsamic Pork Roast
http://www.cafejohnsonia.com/2013/01/slow-cooker-herbed-balsamic-pork-roast.html

This was good. It actually tasted better the next day. We just shredded the meat in the sauce, after I strained and reduced it. Yum!


~~~~~~

Sorry that there are no pictures...I failed to take them. Let me know if anyone wants a recipe that I didn't have a link to.

Day Out.
AC

Happy 2013!

Day In.

Remember when we started to write down memories from last year? Well we got to open the jar and read them out loud! It was a lot of fun...though judging from the picture, it looks like we didn't make many memories last year. hehe

Ah, memories. 

 Also, a new addition. I have really wanted a cool, old, industrial cart to use as a bar in the dining room. So until I find one, I have subbed out this round table from Nadeau. It works for now!

Martini, anyone?

Day Out.
AC

Christmas Time

Day In.

And...we're back. Sorry for the delay. I'm sure all the couple of readers were highly disappointed :)

It's the most wonderful time of the year! I love Christmas...the excitement, time with family, celebrating the birth of Christ.

Here's our tree this year. I found a roll of burlap at Michael's so I wrapped some around the tree. And we put the tree in the dining room for a change.

I added some wintery decorations to the table...which we haven't really used much since it's covered in wrapping paper :)

Speaking of wrapping...

This year, I stayed with my brown craft paper but used plaid ribbons. I also downloaded free gift tags and printed them on red card stock. Loved how it turned out.

p.s. I had to stack the presents on a table...so that pup would leave them alone.

I was on a free-printables kick, so I decided to print a 5x7 print to put up during the holidays. Love the colors.

\

Merry Christmas! 

Day Out.

AC

Cow Chair Mini-Makeover

Day In.

Stuart loves our animal print chair. (I wanted to recover in something amazing and grey...) But since he does love it, I decided to keep it cow print, for now.

It's a wonderful, sturdy chair. All it needed was some new edging/piping around the fabric (not sure if that is the correct technical term).

Here is the chair after I took off the old piping.

(I wish it didn't need the piping but there is a lot of old glue around the fabric)

BEFORE

AFTER

Ta-da! It's the little things :)

Day Out.

AC